2 Dragonfire AU
by Iamthe13thDoctor
Summary: Re-write of the final serial of the 24th season of Classic Who. The Doctor, Nita and Mel arrive at the spaceport Iceworld on the dark side of the planet Svartos. They soon run into Sabalom Glitz, who is on Svartos to work off a debt that he owes to the crime lord Kane. I do not own Doctor Who.
1. Epilogue

**Prologue**

23rd November, 1987, Coopers Plains, Brisbane, Australia

Anita Llewcots, or Nita, as she was known, started the day with mixed feelings. On the one hand, she was happy and relieved to have finally finished high school. She had enjoyed the Senior Formal a week and a half earlier, which she had attended with her friends Frances and Jane, and her boyfriend, Malcolm. The rest of the week had been filled with fun activities such as a trip to Dreamworld, bowling, ice skating and roller skating. Now her high school years were over.

On the other hand, she was a bit sad. Over two years ago, she had met an incredible man named The Doctor, who had changed her life. She had wanted to travel with him and his friend Peri, but he had insisted that she finish her education. She had made him promise to come back for her at the end of year 12. But a week had passed since her last day of school, and she was beginning to think that the Doctor had forgotten her.

She looked at the backpack hidden under her bed, which she had packed in anticipation of the Doctor's arrival. She looked at the three envelopes on her desk, the letters of explanation she had written to her mother, her boyfriend, and her best friend, Frances, so they would know where she had gone. She was beginning to think they wouldn't be needed.

The doorbell rang. She made her way to the front door, which was right next to her bedroom, trying not to let herself get excited. It probably wasn't him. She opened the door. On the landing stood two people she didn't recognize. One was a short, portly man wearing an off-white safari-styled jacket with a red paisley scarf worn under its lapels and a matching handkerchief in the left pocket, a fob watch chained to the left lapel, a plain white shirt, a red paisley tie, a yellow fair isle-inspired pullover adorned with red question marks and blue-green zigzag patterns, sand-coloured tweed plaid trousers, white/brown brogued spectator shoes, a white colonial-styled Panama hat with a paisley hatband and an upturned brim and carried an umbrella with a red question mark-shaped handle. The other was a slim woman, with long, red curly hair.

"Hello, Nita," said the man.

"Sorry, do I know you?" asked Nita, confused.

"I'm the Doctor," said the man.

"Umm…no, you're not," objected Nita.

"Oh!" cried the Doctor, suddenly remembering that he looked different to the last Nita had seen him. "I know I look different," he said. "But it's me. I've regenerated."

"What?" asked Nita, confused.

"When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body," said the woman. "In doing so, his physical appearance and personality change."

"And who are you?" asked Nita, turning to the woman. "If this is the Doctor, where's Peri?"

The Doctor's face fell. "Peri was abducted by an arthropod-like creature named Kiv, who apparently transplanted his brain into her body," replied the Doctor. Nita gasped in horror. "Soon after," the Doctor continued, I was led to believe that Peri was dead. As you can imagine, I was severely distressed by this. It was later revealed that the evidence of Peri's death was faked. Peri, in fact, survived, saved by, and married King Yrcanos of Thoros Alpha, a warrior king who had assisted Peri and I during an earlier incident. I don't know what happened to Peri after she married Yrcanos.

This is Mel, or Melanie, Bush, my current companion."

"Hello!" said Mel, waving with a smile.

"Uh, hi," replied Nita. She turned to the Doctor. "So it's really you?"

"It's really me," agreed the Doctor.

"And you, what did she say….you were critically injured? So that means you died?"

"Correct."

Nita decided to ignore the fact that he hadn't come straight to her through time after leaving her in 1985 as he said he would, for now.

"And you've come to invite me to travel with you?"

"If you'd like."

"Absolutely!" cried Nita. "Come with me, I'll get my bag!" She led them to her bedroom.

"What, just like that?" asked Mel, amazed. "Don't you want to say goodbye to your family?"

"Ha! Like they would ever let me go!" replied Nita. "The TARDIS is a time machine, right?"

"Yes," replied the Doctor, beginning to realize what she was saying.

"So, bring me back to this moment, and they'll never know I was gone."

Mel snorted, and the Doctor scowled at her. Then he sighed.

"As brilliant a driver as I am," began the Doctor, and Mel broke out into full-blown laughter. "Ahem…the TARDIS doesn't always take me where I want to be. I can't guarantee she will bring us back to this exact time."

"I have a back-up plan for that," said Nita, holding up the envelopes from her desk. "I've written letters to my family and friends, telling them where I am if we don't get back at the right time."

"But won't your mother be angry for leaving without asking?" asked the Doctor, a little worried. He didn't usually have much to do with his companions' families.

"Probably," conceded Nita. "But there's no way I'm passing up this chance to travel the stars."

She picked up her bag. "Let's go before Mum discovers you're here. I'd rather not have to explain your presence."

The trio snuck out the front door, out the gate, across the road, behind the bus shelter, and into the TARDIS.

Nita looked around the console room. She had seen it before but it still amazed her. The Doctor approached the console.

"Where or when would you like to go?" he asked.

"Another planet!" Nita decided.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

In a refrigeration room, dry ice floods into the large open space. By upper railings stand people in white uniforms with Prussian style hats - the ones with a nasty spike sticking out of the top. Another waits downstairs. A woman, also in white, leads in six people.

"Halt!" cried the woman.

"Oh, you lucky, lucky people," said the man downstairs. "You are the chosen ones, the elite, specially selected to join our force of mercenaries and create fear and terror wherever you go."

"We were tricked," objected one of the prisoners.

"Kane has paid seventeen crowns for each of you," said the male officer. "And he insists on value for money."

"Seventeen crowns?" asked the prisoner, incredulously. "You couldn't even buy a dog for seventeen crowns."

"Precisely," replied the officer, derisively. "I wouldn't have paid seventeen crowns for the lot of you, let alone each." He pushes the prisoner back and he falls, touching one of the boxes giving out the dry ice. It burns.

"Only frostburn," remarked the officer.

"Frostburn?" asked the prisoner.

"Liquid nitrogen," explained the officer. "Minus two hundred Celsius. Just be thankful your arm didn't go inside the vat, otherwise it would never have come out again." He turned to the woman. "Right, freeze them."

"Wait!" cried the prisoner, whose name was Zed. "You mean we're going to be frozen?"

"Until Kane needs your services, yes," replied the officer. "What's the matter, getting cold feet?"

The woman moves the other men out. Zed hits the remaining guard, takes his weapon and tries to run for it. The officer starts shooting. "Kill him!" he shouted.

Zed runs through a door.

"Leave him," said the officer. "He's in the restricted zone. He's a dead man."

Zed has gone into a room where an old man is chiseling at a huge slab of ice. He trips and drops his newly acquired weapon into a vat. A white clad arm with gold braid reaches in and takes it out, handing it back. Zed drops it on the floor, where it shatters, then the pale faced man puts his hands on Zed's face, and he dies.

"Pay no attention to the intruder," said the owner of the white-clad arm to the old man. "You may continue with your work."

In the TARDIS, the scanner shows a small planetoid sunlit at the bottom and with a massive city on the opposite side.

"Where are we?" asks Nita.

"Iceworld," replies the Doctor. "A space trading colony on the dark side of the planet Svartos. Space travellers stop there for supplies. I've been picking up a faint tracking signal for some time. I think there's something interesting going on there, girls."

In a shopping mall, a woman looks in a chest freezer then drags her daughter away. There is an announcement.

"Don't miss our special offer in the nurturing spares department. Photon refrigeration units for only twenty four ninety five. Thank you."

The TARDIS materialises. Only the little girl looks up as Mel, Nita and the Doctor come out.

"A freezer centre?" asks Nita. "How boring."

"Oh, trust not appearances, Nita," replied the Doctor. "You never know what might be lurking in the freezer chests. Think gothic."

The little girl runs up to Nita wearing a mask, making her gasp then smile.

"This way," says the Doctor, leading them through a doorway into a restaurant.

Amongst the people at the tables of this down market Cantina is Sabalom Glitz, who is complaining about something to a teenaged waitress.

"Ah, three of your best strawberry milkshakes, if you please," requests the Doctor of the girl behind the counter.

"Certainly, sir," replies the girl.

"There must be some mistake in the reckoning," says a man sitting at a table.

The Doctor, Nita and Mel sit at the next table, and he takes out a book to read. The Doctor's Dilemma, by Bernard Shaw.

"The mistake's in your wallet, not my arithmetic," objects the waitress to the man at the table.

"Do you take Asteroid Express?" asks the man. The Doctor recognizes his voice and turns to him.

"Glitz!" cries the Doctor.

"Glitz!" echoes Mel.

The waitress takes the credit card and goes to the bar as the Doctor, Nita and Mel join Glitz at his table.

"What?" asks Glitz, looking around to see if anyone heard. "No, never heard of him."

"It's us, Mel and the Doctor," says Mel. "You haven't forgotten us, have you, Glitz?"

"Shush," begs Glitz. "Keep your voice down. No, of course I haven't forgotten you. Mel, and the Doc. Here, you're not the Doctor."

"I've regenerated," explains the Doctor. "The difference is purely perceptual."

"And this is our friend, Nita," Mel introduces.

"Pleased to meet you," says Glitz to Nita. He turns to the Doctor. "Here, you couldn't do us a favour, could you? You see, I'm in a spot of bother."

The waitress brings the Doctor, Nita and Mel's drinks.

"What's this, Glitz?" asks the Doctor, suspiciously. "Not another one of your dodgy deals backfired?"

"No, no, nothing like that, straight up," denies Glitz. "Fact is, I'm on a mission of highly philanthropic nature."

"What's that?" asks Mel.

"It means it's beneficial to mankind," replies Glitz.

"We know what philanthropic means," says Mel, rolling her eyes. "What's the mission?"

"I have been entrusted to deliver certain secret documents which nefarious unnamed parties would stop at nothing to grasp within their own grubby digits," Glitz replies.

"You mean.." begins the Doctor.

"…They'd kill you," Mel finishes.

Three of Kane's white clad mercenaries enter the restaurant. One touches Glitz' shoulder.

"Sabalom Glitz, we've been looking for you," she says.

"Leave him alone. If you kill him, you kill us too," says Mel, impulsively.

"Er, steady on there, Mel," objects the Doctor.

"What are you talking about?" asks the mercenary, confused.

"Oh, he's told us everything, about how you tried to stop him delivering secret documents," says Mel.

"Shush," objects Glitz.

"Becoming quite a story-teller, aren't we, Glitz?" says the mercenary. "I'm afraid you also seem to be a victim of Mister Glitz's cavalier attitude toward facts."

"Glitz!" exclaims the Doctor.

"I'm not interested in any secret documents which Mister Glitz may or may not possess," says the mercenary. "I am more concerned with the hundred crowns he took from my employer, Mister Kane, under false pretences."

"That was highest quality merchandise," objects Glitz.

"A space freighter full of deep frozen fruit which turned out to be rotten," the mercenary argues.

"Oh, a bit on the ripe side, maybe," says Glitz.

"They were putrefying, Glitz."

"A little past their prime, perhaps."

"And Mister Kane does not run Iceworld to subsidise crooks like yourself. The hundred crowns, please."

"I think you'd better pay back the money, Glitz," advises the Doctor.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Well, you see, there was this game of cards. I got well damaged."

"What about the hundred and two crowns you sold your crew for?" asks the mercenary.

The Doctor returns to his book.

"Sold your crew?" asks Mel, appalled.

"Well, the mutinous rabble. They tried to take command of my spacecraft. I relieved myself of them for seventeen crowns a piece. Rather more than they were worth, I think."

"The money," demands the mercenary.

"Gone the way of all organic matter, I'm afraid. Down the tube."

"In that case, we're confiscating your spacecraft."

"The Nosferatu? You can't do that."

"You have seventy two hours to find one hundred crowns or you lose your spacecraft."

"But it's my livelihood."

The three mercenaries leave.

"Doctor, you've got to help me," begs Glitz.

"You've only got yourself to blame," says the Doctor.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

In the refrigeration room, the remaining members of Glitz's crew go into freezer alcoves.

"We're going to have trouble with this lot when you defrost them, Mister Kane," says Kracauer.

"Trouble?"

"They didn't volunteer willingly."

"None of my mercenary force will be willing when I bring them out of cryosleep. The process causes complete loss of memory. With no memories they can have no past, no future, no will of their own, no purpose except to obey me. To them I shall be invincible. My power shall be absolute."

In the restaurant:

"You will do as you're told," says Anderson. "Less of your lip or you'll be out on your ear."

Ace delivers a drink to a customer then goes to Mel, Nita and the Doctor. Glitz is listening in from his table.

"Hope the dragon gets you in the night," grumbles Ace quietly.

"Dragon?" asks Nita. "What dragon?"

"It's just a legend," replies Ace. "There's supposed to be a terrifying dragon living in the ice passages underneath Iceworld."

"I knew there must be a reason why you brought us here," Mel accuses the Doctor. "You want to see the dragon, don't you?"

"Oh really, Mel, it's fascinating," the Doctor admits. "Travellers claim to have seen it throughout the centuries but there's never been any proof."

"Like the Lock Ness monster," Nita remarks.

"Loch," the Doctor corrects her in his Scottish brogue.

"Och!" cries Mel.

"You're going to go looking for the dragon?" asks Ace.

"Absolutely," replies the Doctor.

"Oh, cool. Can I come too?" asks Ace.

"Won't you get into trouble with your boss?" the Doctor asks.

"Oh, I'm fed up with being a waitress," Ace replies. "Oh, go on, Professor, let me come too."

"Well, I don't see why not," replies the Doctor.

"Ace! And can we search for the treasure, too?" asks Ace.

"Treasure?" the Doctor inquires.

"Yeah. The dragon's supposed to be guarding a fabulous treasure," Ace replies.

Glitz laughs. "Treasure? What treasure? You don't want to go believing in myths and legends, Doctor."

"Who asked you? We're not talking to you," says Mel.

"No, if you want my opinion, all this talk of treasure and dragons, it's all a load of old spacedust," says Glitz.

"Well, if you're so convinced it's all rubbish, why have you been burning holes in this treasure map for the last two days?" asks Ace, pointing to the map on the table.

In the control room:

"He says he lost the money in a game of cards," says Belazs.

"I know he lost the money in a game of cards," replies Kane. "The game was fixed. What about the map?"

"He's convinced it's genuine."

"Excellent. He'll soon realise if he wants to see his spacecraft again he has no alternative but to go after the treasure. And when he does, I shall be with him every step of the way."

"There's just one thing."

"Yes?"

"He appears to have three colleagues."

"Colleagues? I thought he sold his entire crew."

"They're not from his crew, sir. Space travellers. A man and two girls. Do you want them eliminated?"

"Not for the moment, I think. There's no reason for them to suspect that the seal on the treasure map contains a tracking device."

In the restaurant, the Doctor is studying the map.

"Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating."

"Looks like something from a jumble sale to me," says Mel.

"Oi, there's nothing snide about this document," objects Glitz.

"You don't want to believe nothing you get from him, Professor," says Ace. "He probably bought two hundred of them in a job lot."

"Do you mind? This is the real McCoy, this is. It comes from an unimpeachable source."

"What's that, then?" asks Ace.

"That means it is beyond reproach or question," says Glitz.

"I know what unimpeachable means, bird bath, but what makes you so certain this map's pedigree is twenty four carat?" asks Ace.

"Because I acquired it from a man of character and distinction."

"How?" asks Nita.

"I won it in err…, a chess match."

"You won it playing cards," realizes Mel. "Doctor, it's a waste of time. He won it in a card game."

"An honest transaction. The man was desperate not to lose this map, so I know it's something very, very tasty."

"It shows the lower levels of Iceworld," says the Doctor.

"No one goes down there any more," says Ace. "Too dangerous."

"The Ice Garden, the Singing Trees," the Doctor reads from the map.

"But like the girl says, Doctor, it's too dangerous," says Glitz.

"Where's your sense of adventure, Glitz?" objects the Doctor.

"What, do you want to go here, the Lake of Oblivion?" asks Glitz, pointing to a spot on the map.

"Where?" asks the Doctor.

"Depth of Eternal Darkness? Dragonfire?" Glitz continues. "I should stop at home, if I were you."

"Cor, this sounds brill!" cries Ace.

"My sentiments precisely," agrees the Doctor. "What's your name, incidentally?"

"Everyone calls me Ace."

"Oh, how do you do. I'm the Doctor and these are my friends Mel and Nita.

"And we're really going to go looking for dragons?" asks Ace.

"Too risky if you ask me," objects Glitz.

"Nonsense, Glitz. Time for a quick adventure then back for tea."

"Ace!"

"That's the spirit, Doctor," says Mel.

The Doctor folds up the map.

"Hang about!" cries Glitz. "You can't go without me, that's my map. And I don't want these girls coming along, either."

"What?" cries Ace.

"It's too dangerous," objects Glitz.

"Professor!"

"And since it's my map…"

"Right, you male chauvinist bilge bag, just you wait."

Ace leaves.

"Oh, nice," remarks Glitz.

"And I was so looking forward to meeting a dragon," says the Doctor.

"Oh, it's all right, Doctor, you go on ahead. We'll wait here. And if Glitz burns his fingers in the dragon's fire, then it serves him right," says Mel.

"It's just you and me, then, Doctor."

The men stand up and head for the door. The Doctor stops to tickle a hairy child under the chin. It barks and snarls at him.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Belazs is viewing the monitor the control room. "They have left the upper levels now."

"Only two of them, you say?" Kane asks.

"Glitz and the traveller called the Doctor. They're just setting off for the lower levels."

"Excellent. Continue to monitor the tracking device." Kane notices that Belazs looks like she wants to say something else. "Well?"

"It's Glitz's spacecraft."

"What of it?"

"It's just that…" she hesitates.

"Yes?"

"Well, if Glitz and the Doctor are as good as dead, I'd like the spacecraft."

Kane becomes angry. "Oh, you'd like the spacecraft, would you? When you first came here you had nothing. You were willing enough to take my payment then. But now you want to leave. Perhaps you have memories of a home you can return to? Perhaps I should have put you into cryosleep along with all the others and erased your memories."

Kane takes Belazs' face with one hand and holds up his ungloved hand to it. She flinches, her heart pounding in terror, and he takes her left hand instead.

"Perhaps you need reminding. As long as you bear my mark, I own you."

He turns her hand over and holds it up near her face. Her palm has the imprint of a coin burnt into it. Kane activates the communicator.

"Yes, sir?" came a man's voice.

"Glitz's spacecraft. Have it destroyed."

"Yes, sir."

Belazs heart falls. That ship could have been her one chance to escape from Kane.

In the restaurant, Mel and Nita are still sitting at the table.

"I can't believe we have to just sit here while the men have all the fun!" cries Nita. "Is the Doctor always so over-protective?"

"Not always," replies Mel. "He only told us to wait here so Glitz would agree to take him to see the dragon. He couldn't bear to miss out on solving a mystery. But still, it's not fair, is it?"

Ace takes drinks to the woman and her daughter, then unpins her bun to release a pony tail.

There is an announcement over the loud-speaker: "Would the emergency services please report to the docking bay to deal with an icing up. Thank you."

Mel turns to Ace. "It's all your fault."

"How'd you work that out?"

"You were encouraging them both. 'Oh ace! Oh brill!'"

The woman calls out to Ace: "You girl!"

Ace turns to her and raises her eyebrows.

"Yes, you, girl. Come here."

"What do you want?"

"This milkshake isn't adequately shaken."

"That's how they come, missus."

"It's got lumps in it."

"It's supposed to have lumps in it. That's the ice cream."

"But we don't want lumps in it. Shake it some more."

"Shake it yourself."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You heard."

"I've never been so insulted!"

"Bet you've never had a milk shake tipped over your head, neither."

Ace is as good as her word. She tips the freezing cold milkshake over the posh woman's head. The woman squeals and the barman/manager rushes to her.

"I'm awfully sorry, madam." He turns to ace angrily. "That does it, you're fired!"

Ace suddenly realizes what she has done. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"Get out. I've had enough of you."

"I promise it'll never happen again."

"Get out!" He turns to Mel and Nita. "You too, out."

"Us?" asks Mel, bewildered.

"All of you. Out!"

"All right, we're going!" says Mel, getting up.

"You're troublemakers, hooligans." He turns back to the woman. "I do apologize for my staff. I do assure you, those milk shakes don't stain."

Ace's last act is to tip one over his head, too. The three girls run out of the restaurant, giggling.

In the restricted zone, the image of a woman is being cut from the ice block. Kane admires it then goes to lie on a table.

"Current ambient temperature minus ten Celsius. Target temperature minus a hundred and ninety three Celsius," comes a voice from the computer.

A clear lid closes over Kane.

"Cabinet temperature dropping."

The three girls enter Ace's room, a typical teenage mess. An announcement comes over the loud-speaker: "If there's anyone in the emergency control room, would you please answer the phone. Thank you."

Ace throws herself on the bed. Mel and Nita stand in the doorway.

"Well, come on in, if you're going to. He really gets up my nostrils, that Glitz."

"Oh, he's all right underneath," says Mel.

"No. He's a grade A hundred percent div, that's what he is. Underneath," Ace argues.

Mel starts picking up clothes in the hunt for a chair to sit on.

"Look, leave those alone, will you?" says Ace.

"I was only trying to make room to sit."

"Well, just sit on top of them like everyone else does, can't you?"

"All right, all right."

"I've been meaning to do the washing for a couple of weeks."

"Looks more like a couple of months to me."

"You're just like the teachers used to be at school. 'How do you expect to pass your chemistry A level if you can't even store the equipment properly?'"

"A level? You're from Earth?"

"Used to be."

"Whereabouts on Earth?" asks Nita.

"Perivale."

"Sounds nice."

"You ever been there?"

"No."

"I was doing this brill experiment to extract nitroglycerine from gelignite, but I think something must have gone wrong. This time storm blows up from nowhere and whisks me up here."

"When was this?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, don't you ever want to go back?"

"Not particularly."

Ace changes out of her waitress apron and puts on a padded jacket decorated with NASA space mission badges. And a Fanderson one, and Ace Roofing Co.

"What about your mum and dad?" asks Nita.

"I haven't got no mum and dad. I've never had no mum and dad and I don't want no mum and dad. It's just me, all right?"

"Sorry."

"What about your chemistry A level, then?" asks Mel.

"That's no good. I got suspended after I blew up the art room."

"You blew up the art room?" asks Nita, amazed. Nothing that exciting had ever happened at her school.

"It was only a small explosion. They couldn't understand how blowing up the art room was a creative act. So what about you two? Where are you from?"

"I'm from Pease Pottage, in West Sussex," says Mel.

"I"ve heard of it," says Ace. "Is that south of London?"

"That's right," agrees Mel. "In Crawley."

"How about you?" Ace asks Nita.

"I'm from Australia," replies Nita.

Another announcement: "If anyone sees any member of the emergency services, will you please ask them to pop along to the upper docking bay when they've a moment to spare. Thank you."

Ace takes some pressurized cans from a rucksack. "Isn't anyone going to do anything about that ice jam blocking the docking bay? Here, take these." She tosses cans to Mel and Nita.

"Deodorant?" asks Nita, puzzled.

"They're just old cans. They've got home made Nitro Nine in them now," Ace explains.

"Nitro Nine?" asks Mel.

"It's just like ordinary nitroglycerine, except it's got a bit more wallop. Careful you don't drop them. Come on." Ace puts the rucksack over her shoulder and leaves. Mel and Nita follow her.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

In the control room, Belazs watches Kane in the restricted zone through a glass door. She hears the computer voice say: "Cabinet at minus a hundred and ninety three Celsius." She goes to the central console and activates the communicator.

"Yes, sir?" comes a man's voice.

"It's me, Belazs. Mister Kane has changed his mind about Glitz's spacecraft. It's not to be destroyed, do you understand?"

"Spacecraft is not to be destroyed."

"That is correct."

On the lower levels, the Doctor and Glitz are following the map along catwalks between walls of ice. They stop at an intersection.

"Have you seen any Singing Trees or Ice Gardens, Glitz?"

"We're still too close to the upper levels, Doctor. Let's cast me eyes over the map."

"Well, since we've come from that direction," the Doctor points to their left. "I think we should go in that direction", pointing to the right. He turns in a circle. "Then again…"

Glitz drops the map and bends to retrieve it as the Doctor's umbrella swings above his head.

"Perhaps that direction. Yes. And keep your eyes peeled for any Singing Trees or Ice Gardens, Glitz."

In the docking bay, several people are struggling to open a door.

"Come on, both sides, push! Harder! Push!" cries Kracauer. 

Mel, Nita and Ace enter.

"Gordon Bennett, what a bunch of Spocks!" cries Ace. "They'll never get it open at that rate. Here, let's have a couple of those" she gestures to the nitro nine.

"You're not going to use those, are you?" asks Mel, nervously.

Ace pulls the tops of the cans and walks up to the frozen hatchway.

"If I were you lot, I'd go for your tea break now."

She sticks the cans on the ice.

"Why? What's in those cans?" asks Kracauer.

"Nitro Nine. We've got eight seconds. Last one back's a gooey mess."

Ace, Nita and Mel run.

"Nitro? Everybody, get down!" cries Kracauer.

There is a small explosion.

"Ace!" cries Ace.

"Ace!" cries Mel.

"Errr…Ace!" cries Nita.

Belazs enters the restricted zone and goes over to the temperature monitor, then back to the sculpture.

"Target blood temperature of minus one hundred and ninety three Celsius achieved," says the computer.

Kane gets out of his cabinet. He notices Belazs. "What are you doing in the restricted zone?"

"I was looking for you. There's been an ice jam in the upper docking bay and the emergency services haven't responded."

"Must I do everything myself? Go there immediately and take charge of the situation."

"Of course."

The Doctor and Glitz reach the Singing Trees, an area of stalactites, crystalline stalagmites and a tinkling sound.

"Singing Trees," says the Doctor.

"But these aren't trees."

"Use your imagination, Glitz. Willow trees, something like that."

"Well, where's the singing coming from?"

"Air current causes the crystal membranes to vibrate."

Glitz picks up an icicle. "I bet this is worth a few grotzits."

"Yes, what's it do?"

"Do?"

"Yes. Some sort of opto-electronic circuit. But why? I mean, what's it doing here?"

"You mean someone made all this? Dragons?"

"Possibly. Come on, Glitz. Tempus fugit. I want to be back in time for tea."

Belazs enters the docking bay with an escort. "What is going on? You three are under arrest. Take them away."

"What?" asks Nita.

"Hang about!" cries Ace.

"Put me down!" cries Mel.

Mel, Nita and Ace are hustled away.

"Leave me alone! Get off! Stop it! Not fair!" cries Ace.

At an ice junction, Glitz takes a right turn by a formation that looks like flowers, leaving the Doctor alone on the slippery passageway. "Glitz? Glitz? Glitz?"

Ace, Mel and Nita are escorted into the refrigeration room.

"Quite a little expert with explosives, I hear," says Kane.

"Yeah? So what if I am?" asks Ace, belligerently.

"Excellent. I like women with fire in their bellies, don't I, Belazs? I might yet have a use for you."

"Oh yeah? What makes you think I'd be interested?"

"Oh, I can be very persuasive."

"I'm not frightened of you."

"Good. Because I shall need people like you in my army of mercenaries."

"You what?"

"Think about it. Travelling through the twelve galaxies, the diamond sparkle of meteorite showers, the rainbow flashes of an ion storm. Think about it."

"Don't listen to him, Ace!" cries Nita.

Ace snaps out of her trance.

"How old are you?"

"Six…err… eighteen."

"Eighteen, eh? No home to call your own. The twelve galaxies are your home. Come with me. I understand you."

"It won't be like that, Ace!" cries Mel. "Don't believe him."

"Join me. Take my golden sovereign."

He puts it on the console for her. It's intense cold steams against the metal.

"Take the sovereign."

"Don't do it, Ace! Please, don't do it!" cries Nita.

"You've heard altogether too much," Kane says to Mel and Nita. "Freeze them!" he commands.

"No, Ace!" cries Mel, struggling to get away as she and Nita are restrained.

"Take my coin," Kane repeats to Ace. "Take the coin."

Ace knocks the coin to the floor and brandishes a can of Nitro Nine. "Right, freeze! I mean, don't freeze. Stand still and let Mel and Nita go.

Kane nods and the girls are set free.

"You stupid girl. Think it's that easy to walk away from me?"

"Do you feel like arguing with a can of deodorant that registers nine on the Richter scale?" Ace retorts, throwing the can. "Run!" she cries to the girls.

Mel, Nita and Ace run out and meet up on the ice catwalk. They keep running.

Meanwhile, the Doctor finds himself at the top of an ice cliff. For some bizarre reason, he climbs over the railing.

Ace, Nita and Mel stop running in a dark area.

"Hang on, are you sure this is the right way?" Nita asks Ace.

"Course I'm sure. Don't you trust me?"

"I don't know. What with the dragon and all that."

"The dragon!" Ace scoffs. "It's just something to frighten little children with. It's like witches and goblins. There ain't no such thing."

Then something black and rather dragonesque approaches them. Mel screams.

Meanwhile the Doctor is hanging off a railing running along the edge of the ice cliff. He reaches for his umbrella which is also hooked onto the railing, but his hands slide down the fabric, leaving him dangling above an abyss.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The girls are facing something black and rather dragonesque on a lower level.

"Wicked!" cries Ace, gleefully.

"Get down!" shouts Nita, pulling Ace back before it fires something that sparks when it hits the icewall.

"That's not a real dragon," Ace realizes. "That was a laser beam."

"Look out!" shouts Mel, as the 'dragon' prepares to fire again.

At the top of the ice cliff, Glitz is looking over the railing at the Doctor dangling from his umbrella.

"It's no use, Doctor. I've located the Ice Garden but there's a distinct absence of dragon or treasure."

"Glitz, I sympathize with your disappointment, but I'm about to plummet to my death."

"Oh, I suppose you want me to risk my neck and come and help you."

"Glitz!"

"All right, all right. Don't get your delicates in a twist."

"Glitz!"

"I can't get you up here, I'll go down the bottom. See you in a minute."

Meanwhile, in the Refrigeration room:

"Belazs, you astound me," says Kane. "Those three girls should have been searched when they were arrested. You seem to be taking advantage of my former feelings for you. Be warned, the past is an empty slate. I demand absolute loyalty now and forever, and I don't forgive those who betray me. The girls must be stopped before they reach Glitz and the Doctor. They must be eradicated."

Kane activates the control to open up some freezer units. "What could be more appropriate than to despatch some of Glitz's former crew after the girls. He betrayed his crew, now they can have their revenge. Everyone should be allowed his moment of revenge."

At the base of the ice cliff, a dark-haired girl suddenly appears, just before Glitz emerges from a tunnel.

"'Ere, who are you then? How did you get here?" Glitz asks her.

"Never mind about that," the girl replies. "Let me help you get the Doctor down safely."

"How do you know that's the Doctor?" asks Glitz again.

"You're wasting time," is the girl's reply. "Let's just get him down from there before he breaks his neck, shall we?"

Glitz and the girl work together to help the Doctor down the cliff-face. The Doctor climbs down off Glitz's shoulders in the most convoluted fashion.

"I say, thank you," says the Doctor, looking around. "Where did that girl disappear to? Who was she, anyway."

"I don't know, but she knew who you were. And she appeared just when we needed her." He turned his attention to the matter at hand. "It's no use, Doctor. Even if we did find the treasure, it'd take us longer than seventy two hours, and Belazs said if I didn't return Kane's money within seventy two hours they'd confiscate my spacecraft."

"Why don't you explain the problem to him?"

"Oh, he'd slice his own mother up to make a point. If he was a mortician, the corpses would keep their eyes open."

"Ah."

"In fact, if Kane knew we were after the…"

In the Refrigeration room, Belazs is listening in via the tracker in the map seal.

"…dragon's treasure, your life expectancy wouldn't be looking too clever at the moment. He's a cold man, Doctor. Cut him open and you won't find a heart, just a lump of ice."

"These types never have any sense of fair play."

"Exactly. Which is why I've come to the conclusion that play it by the rules is a mug's game. I have decided to hijack the Nosferatu. Which is where you come in, Doctor."

"Ah, hang on there a minute, Glitz. I'm engaged in a project of scientific curiosity. I mean, that dragon, or whatever it may turn out to be, could be an undiscovered species."

"Look, I'll do you a good deal. You help me get the Nosferatu back, and I'll give you the treasure map so's you and Nita and Mel can go looking for this dragon. I can't say fairer than that, can I?"

"You have me there, Glitz. Without the map, I'll never find the creature."

"You're a man of insight and logic, Doctor."

Glitz gives the Doctor the map.

"All right, then. Where's the Nosferatu berthed?"

"In the lower docking bay."

The zombie crew march along the ice cat walks.

In the Restricted zone, the sculptor is at work.

"A work of artistry, my friend," Kane commends him. "Incandescent artistry. I could almost believe Xana lives again. A unique beauty, yes, but more than that, a criminal genius also. Oh, what a waste." He addresses the statue: "It should have been I who was killed escaping arrest, not you."

The girls have reached the top of the ice cliff.

"You're joking," says Ace. "I'm not going down there."

"Look, there's the Doctor's brolly," says Nita. "We must be on the right track."

"What did he have to come this way for?" asks Ace. "I could break my neck."

"How are we going to get down there?" asks Mel.

"Hang on," says Ace. She rummages in her rucksack and produces a roll of slim metal ladder.

Glitz and the Doctor reach the lower docking bay.

"There's only one guard," says Glitz. "Do you think you can occupy him while I slip on board?"

"I'll do my best."

"Go on, then. Away you go."

The Doctor walks up to the guard. "Excuse me. What's your attitude towards the nature of existence? For example, do you hold any strong theological opinions?"

"I think you'll find most educated people regard mythical convictions as fundamentally animistic," replies the guard.

"I see. That's a very interesting concept."

"Personally, I find most experiences border on the existential."

"Well, how do you reconcile that with the empirical critical belief that experience is at the root of all phenomena?"

"I think you'll find that a concept can be philosophically valid even if theologically meaningless."

"So, what you're saying is that before Plato existed, someone had to have the idea of Plato."

Glitz slips into the docking bay.

"Oh, you've no idea what a relief it is for me to have such a stimulating philosophical discussion," says the guard. "There are so few intellectuals about these days. Tell me, what do you think of the assertion that the semiotic thickness of a performed text varies according to the redundancy of auxiliary performance codes?"

"Yes," replies the Doctor, only half-listening as he discreetly watches Glitz's progress.

 **A/N Who is the mysterious girl who helps the Doctor at the ice cliff? If you'll recall, in "The Name of the Doctor" one of the versions of Clara was shown seeing the Doctor dangling from the ice cliff. And the TV story of Dragonfire never showed how Glitz got the Doctor down from the cliff. So it is logical to conclude that Clara helped him.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Glitz enters the Nosferatu. It is small, messy with a pair of giant fluffy dice dangling from a chain.

"Ah, my ship. Soon be light years away from this place."

Glitz straps himself into the pilots seat, but then he feels a gun placed to his head.

"I wouldn't touch those controls if I were you," says Belazs.

At the top the Ice cliff, Mel starts down the ladder, collecting the Doctor's umbrella on the way. Ace and Nita follow.

"Wicked!" cried Ace. "And the bilge bag said this was too dangerous for girls."

Back at the Nosferatu:

"This spacecraft is mine," Belazs claims.

"Hang on, the seventy two hours aren't up yet," objects Glitz. "You said if I could get hold of the grotzits I could have the Nosferatu back."

"Then I shall just have to make sure you don't manage to find the money in time. I shall have to make very sure."

At that moment, The Doctor runs in.

"Hello. Not interrupting anything, am I?"

"What are you doing here?" Belazs demands.

"That's a very difficult question. Why is everyone round here so preoccupied with metaphysics?"

"I think she's going to kill us, Doctor."

"Ah. An existentialist."

"Quiet! Only one of us can leave Iceworld aboard the Nosferatu, and one way or the other it's going to be me."

"What about the boss, Mister Kane? Does he know of your little enterprise?" asks Glitz.

"Kane doesn't own me."

"Oh, I think he does," contradicts the Doctor. "I think he bought you like he buys everything in Iceworld."

"What would you know about it?"

"I think he bought you a long time ago," the Doctor continues. "He paid seventeen crowns for each of Glitz's crew. How much did he pay for you? Was it worth it? Were you worth it?"

Belazs holds up her burnt palm. "That's what I sold myself for, Kane's mark. I ought to cut my hand off for doing it."

While Belazs is distracted by the Doctor, Glitz unbuckles himself and takes her gun.

"Go on, then. Kill me!" she challenges him.

"Well, come on, Doctor. We've got the Nosferatu back. Let's get out of here."

"No, Glitz. You can't go on stealing everything you want, like this Stradivarius and that Dutch master. Pay Kane back his debt, even if it costs a thousand crowns, ten thousand crowns. Pay back the debt." He turns to Belazs. "And as for you, your debt to Kane, I don't think you'll be able to pay it off. Ever."

"What's the matter?" asks Mel, as Ace stops in her tracks.

"Shush. Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" asks Nita.

"I thought I heard something."

"Well, what kind of something?" asks Mel.

The zombie crew are coming up behind them.

"I don't know. Can you see anything?"

More crew come round the corner.

"Look out!" cries Nita.

"Run!" shouts Ace.

Elsewhere, a bulkhead door creaks open. It is the Doctor and Glitz.

"I think we go straight on," says the Doctor. They hear a distant roar. "Either that, or we don't."

They start to creep along a catwalk, then the dragon fires its lasers at them. They retreat behind the bulkhead door again.

"Well, now that we've found the Dragonfire, what's next on your list of tourist attractions, Doctor?"

"Well, I'm not absolutely certain this one's over yet."

The bulkhead is getting hot from the dragon trying to cut through it.

"It must be generating a spot temperature in excess of fifteen hundred Celsius," says the Doctor.

Back with the girls, Nita pulls the top off a can. "Right, cover your ears."

There is a small explosion. The zombies don't like it.

"Ace! Yeah, good job. Throw the other one."

Another explosion as Mel throws a can.

"Yeah, go for it, tiger. That was well brill."

"We're not in the clear yet," says Nita, pointing to a zombie gettting up.

"I don't believe it. Not after two cans of Nitro. Nothing can survive that. Come on, Mel, Nita, shift!"

"Okay!"

Around the corner Mel slips and hits her head on some metal stairs. She is knocked unconscious.

"Come on! Come on, wake up," begs Ace.

Ace and Nita drag Mel under the stairs. The zombie clomps round the corner and goes up the stairs, standing directly above them. Then he goes back down and continues along the catwalk.

"Oh, what happened?" groans Mel, coming around.

"It's all right, doughnut. He's gone," says Ace.

The dragon cuts through the bulkhead door.

"Get back, Doctor."

Glitz aims Belazs's gun at the dragon.

"No, Glitz, don't."

"Why?"

"We've got no right to kill."

The Doctor throws the gun away and the dragon leaves.

"Why didn't it kill us?" asks Glitz.

"Perhaps we'd better ask it."

Belazs and Kracauer are in the refrigeration room.

"Can't sleep, Belazs?"

"How old do you think I am, Kracauer?"

"Thirty three, thirty four?"

"And how old do you think I was when I first agreed to join Kane? Sixteen. That was a long time ago. Do you see this?" Belazs holds out her palm.

"Yes, the mark of the sovereign."

"You'd have thought it would begin to disappear after twenty years."

"We sold ourselves. We knew what we were doing. We had a choice."

"I was sixteen."

"Even at sixteen we had a choice."

"He'll kill us. He'll find someone younger and he'll kill us unless we kill him first."

"How do you propose to do that?"

"With heat. Even here in Iceworld it's too warm for him. I've seen inside the restricted zone. That's where he keeps his refrigeration unit. He has to return there whenever his body temperature rises too high."

"Do you want some coffee?" asks Ace.

"Oh, thanks," answers Mel.

"Yes please," replies Nita.

Ace gets a large thermos from her rucksack.

"Do you know what I did for a job when they threw me out of school?" asks Mel.

"No," both girls answer.

"I worked as a waitress in a fast food cafe. Day in, day out, same boring routine. Some boring life. It was all wrong. It didn't feel like me that was doing it at all. I felt like I'd fallen from another planet and landed in this strange girl's body, but it wasn't me at all. I was meant to be somewhere else. Each night I'd walk home and I'd look up at the stars through the gaps in the clouds, and I tried to imagine where I really came from. I dreamed that one day everything would come right. I'd be carried off back home, back to my real mum and dad. Then it actually happened and I ended up here. Ended up working as a waitress again, only this time I couldn't dream about going nowhere else. There wasn't nowhere else to go."


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Kane is standing alone in the Restricted zone, staring at the statue. "One day, when we return home, I shall erect colossal statues in your honour." Kane gets into his refrigeration unit.

"Current ambient temperature minus ten Celsius. Target temperature minus a hundred and ninety three Celsius. Cabinet temperature dropping," says the computer.

Ace, Mel and Nita are chatting over coffee in the lower levels.

"There's something I've never told anyone," says Ace. "Do you promise not to laugh, and not to tell no one?"

"Of course," Mel and Nita both agree.

"It's my name. It's not really Ace. My real name's Dorothy. That's how I knew they couldn't be my real mum and dad. My real mum and dad would never have given me a naff name like Dorothy." She stood up, collecting their coffee cups and stuffing them in her rucksack. "Come on."

Kracauer enters the Restricted zone.

"Minus one hundred and fifty. Minus one hundred and sixty. Minus one hundred and seventy," says the computer.

Kracauer starts moving controls on the wall panel.

"Cabinet temperature rising. Minus one hundred and sixty," says the computer.

Ace, Mel and Nita reach an Ice junction, which led down another cliff.

"Down there?" asks Mel, doubtfully.

"I suppose so," Ace shrugs.

The Doctor and Glitz slither round the corner behind them.

"Ah, Mel, you've brought my umbrella."

"Oh, Doctor!" cries Nita, relieved.

"Professor!" cries Ace. She sneers at Glitz, "Bilge bag."

"What's that?" asks Glitz.

"Now, now, stop this squabbling. There's no place for animosity on a serious scientific undertaking," says the Doctor.

"Do you mean the dragon?" asks Mel.

"Well, it's not so much a dragon as more of a semi-organic vertebrate with a highly developed cerebral cortex."

"And it's got laser beams in its eyes. It tried to kill us," says Ace.

"Yes," agrees Nita.

"Really? Well, I wonder what you did to annoy it?" asks the Doctor.

"It just came at us, Professor. No warning."

"Really. Well, let's see what this vertebrate with laser beams has got to say for itself," says the Doctor.

A zombie steps out in front of them.

"Hello," the Doctor greets it. "Where might you have popped up from, then?"

"He's been sent by Kane, Doctor," explains Mel.

"He's got masses of them frozen in his deep freeze," continues Ace.

"Cryogenesis, eh?" ponders the Doctor.

"Hang about," Glitz interjects. "I'd recognise that mutinous expression anywhere."

"Friend of yours, is he?" Ace sneers.

Glitz addresses the Zombie: "Pudovkin, old son, you've no idea how pleased I am to see you again."

"It's no good, Glitz," says the Doctor, gently. "Ace says he's been cryogenically frozen."

"What about the time we captured that space freighter loaded up with all that natural fruit alcohol. We got well dehydrated that night, didn't we?"

"It's no use. Deep cryogenics freezes the neural pathways."

"Oh, come on, old son. A joke's a joke. It's me, Sabalom Glitz."

"It's completely impossible for him to recall any events prior to cryogenesis."

"I remember," says Pudovkin, in a monotone.

"Except in cases of overwhelming hatred or anger," the Doctor corrects himself.

"I remember how you always had the best of our pickings."

"I don't recall," Glitz denies.

"I remember. I remember how you sold our entire crew to Kane to be frozen as mercenaries."

The dragon appears behind them.

"Oh now, come on, old son, don't go jumping to conclusions."

"I thought he was a friend of yours," says Ace.

Pudovkin raises his gun.

"More of an acquaintance, actually," says Glitz.

The dragon shoots Pudovkin. The Doctor raises his hat to it.

"We don't mean you any harm. Do you understand?"

"It's friendly," Nita realizes.

The dragon gestures and walks to the ice flower decorated entrance.

"It wants us to go with it, Professor."

"Well, let's see what our new friend wants to show us, shall we?"

In the Restricted zone, the statue of Xana is melting.

"Warning, defrost threshold crossed. Cabinet temperature rising. Plus one Celsius. Plus two Celsius. Plus three Celsius" says the computer.

Kane's cabinet opens.

"Plus four Celsius."

"What's happening?" gasps Kane. "Can't breathe. Too warm. Kracauer, what is this?"

Then Kane sees the statue. "No, not my statue. No! Who has desecrated the monument? Who?"

Kane lunges at Kracauer's face but he runs out of the room.

"Belazs!"

Kane resets the temperature controls.

"Target temperature minus a hundred and ninety three Celsius. Temperature dropping to zero Celsius. Minus ten Celsius. Minus twenty Celsius."

The Doctor and his friends finally find the Singing Trees.

"This is beautiful, Doctor," gasps Nita.

"Here, I can hear singing. Where's it coming from, Professor?" asks Ace.

"I think he wants us to watch," says the Doctor.

"What's he doing, Professor?"

The dragon fires short burst of laser energy at a crystal.

"Ah, so that's what this is all about, a polydimensional scanning imager," the Doctor realizes. "And I bet the creature's using itself as the energy source."

A hologram appears of a lady.

"Planetary archives, criminal history segment ninety three twelve oh three. Two of the most vicious examples of the criminal mentality have been the leaders of the notorious Kane-Xana gang. Until its demise, this gang carried out systematic violence and extortion unequalled in its brutality. In view of the sheer evil of his crimes, Kane is to be exiled from the planet Proamon and never allowed to return home. He will be banished to the barren planet of Svartos, which has a permanently frozen dark side on which he can survive."

Kane enters the Refrigeration room, hands behind his back. "Ah, my dear Belazs. You know, I've been thinking. I've been thinking of your request to leave. You've been with me a long time now. I've grown very fond of you, but I've been thinking it over carefully and I've decided. You may leave me."

Belazs is astonished. "Leave?"

"Whenever you wish. Go in fortune and happiness."

Kane grabs her face in his hands. "You traitor. I've been planning my revenge for three thousand years. How can you stand in my way now I am so close?"

At the Singing Trees, the Doctor and his friends are still staring at the Archivist hologram.

"Kane's partner, the woman Xana, killed herself during the final siege of the gang's headquarters to avoid being arrested and tried for her crimes."

The hologram fades away.

"Fascinating," remarks the Doctor.

"Well, that explains about Kane, but where does the creature come from?" wonders Nita.

"And what about the fabulous treasure? Is this it?" asks Glitz.

"Oh, no, no," answers the Doctor. "We might be deep beneath Iceworld, but Kane could find his way here easily enough. No, the treasure's got to be somewhere else, somewhere beyond Kane's reach. What does he fear most?"

"Heat," answers Ace. "It'll kill him."

"Precisely," the Doctor agrees. "And what better way of protecting the real treasure than to leave a fire-breathing dragon to guard it? What better protection than if the dragon is the treasure."

"The creature, the treasure?" asks Mel.

"Am I right?" the Doctor asks the Dragon. "Are you the one that everyone's looking for, treasure?"

The top of the dragon's head opens, and a crystal rises up, sparking electricity.

"It must be worth a fortune," Glitz salivates.

"No, look past the gold and the gemstone, Glitz. Look at the fire inside. A source of intense optical energy."

In the Restricted zone, Kane is listening to the conversation.

"Look at it through Kane's eyes," says the Doctor. "See it as an evil mind would see it."

"At last," says Kane, gleefully. "After three thousand years, the Dragonfire shall be mine."


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

In the Refrigeration room, the communicator beeps. The guard answers.

"Duty guard."

"We have an incident in the lower sectors, quadrant six," comes Kane's voice, speaking from the Restricted zone. "An aggressive non-terrestrial. It is marked with a radio tracking device. I want the creature eliminated. Bring me back its head."

The Doctor and his friends are still at the Singing Trees.

"I'm beginning to feel a rather cosy warm sensation in my money pouch," says Glitz.

"Lay one finger on the dragon, bilge bag, and I'll rivet your kneecaps together," Ace warns him.

"We've got to stop Kane from finding the creature," says Mel.

"Look!" cries Ace, pointing at the dragon.

The dragon puts the crystal away and closes up its 'skull'.

"There's something not right. Can't put my finger… Proamon. Proamon," the Doctor frowns, trying to

remember where he'd heard that name before.

"Well, the hologram said that Proamon was Kane's home planet," says Nita.

"Yes, but where have I heard of it before? I mean, where was it? Was it in the past or is it in the future?"

"Is any of this important, Doctor?" asks Glitz.

"Is a grain of sand important, Glitz? I must go back and consult my star charts on the TARDIS."

"Your spacecraft? Brill!" cries Ace.

"But there isn't time, Doctor," Mel points out.

"Doughnuts!" exclaims Ace.

"No need to perambulate back to Iceworld, Doctor. These passages have their own star charts. The Ice

Garden. I found it, remember?" Glitz reminds him.

"A primitive star chart. Missing constellations, orbital calculations, I imagine. Ah yes, I would like to see

this."

"Ice garden?" asks Ace.

"Er, you stay here. I shan't be long."

"The Doctor's right. You three stay here until the Doctor and I get back."

"Bilge bag," sneers Age.

"Now, now, now, now, now," the Doctor intervenes. "You stay here with them," he tells Glitz. "They can

look after you so you don't get into any trouble, Glitz."

"Do what?" Glitz couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Behave, Doctor!"

"Don't argue!" the Doctor insists. "The four of you are safer together."

The Doctor and the dragon leave.

In the Refrigeration room, two guards are having a conversation.

"How many ant hunts you been on?" asks McLuhan.

"Ant hunts?" asks Bazin, puzzled.

"A N T. Aggressive non-terrestrial. Have you ever seen one?"

"Not as such."

"Ah, thought not."

"But it's standard procedure."

"And what do you think a standard non-terrestrial looks like?"

"Well…"

"Try thinking of a scorpion, two metres tall, coming at you out of the shadows. Right, now do me a favour

and leave your water pistol at home. If I'm relying on you to cover my back I want to know that you are

carrying enough artillery to blow this ant clean across the space lanes."

McLuhan exchanges Bazin's hand weapon for a massive bazooka sized object.

At the Singing Trees, Glitz and the girls are sitting around, bored.

"We could always pass the time by playing a game, I suppose. I spy, or something," suggests Mel.

Ace and Nita give Mel withering Looks.

"As if I want to sit around here!" Nita complains. "I ran away with the Doctor to have some fun, not sit

around while he has all the fun!" She turns to Mel. "Is he always like this?"

"No, he usually includes me in everything," replies Mel. "It's Glitz's fault we're stuck here."

In the Refrigeration room, McLuhan and Bazin lock and load.

"Ready?" asks McLuhan.

"Two metres tall?"

"Minimum. Let's go."

An at Ice junction, the Doctor consults the map. "They always mark north and south on these things,

never backwards and forwards."

The dragon gestures.

"Tell you what, you seem to know where you're going. Why don't I just trust to your sense of direction?"

The Doctor gives the dragon the map.

In the Refrigeration room, the mercenaries have been defrosted.

"The time is at hand," Kane tells them. "In a few hours, when the Dragonfire is mine, we shall be able to

leave this wretched planet. I want you to spread terror throughout the upper levels and drive everyone

towards the Nosferatu. I want no one left in Iceworld."

On the lower levels, McLuhan and Bazin enter through the bulkhead door.

"Here, take this. It's a radio tracking device," says McLuhan. "Fix it on the front of your gun where you can

see it. If this ant so much as twitches, I want to know."

The Doctor and the dragon have reached the Ice Garden. There are no visible stalactites, more floral

formations. The middle of the wall has a twinkling star chart on it.

"Silver bells and cockle shells, and ice gardens all in a row. Extraordinary. This must be a solar system.

There's a large red star with small orbiting planets. Constellations, yes, but that one's too high up. They're

all slightly out of position. This star chart's no use any more. How long have you been on this planet? Two

thousand years? Longer?"

"This is naff," Ace complains. "This is mega-naff."

"This could be so awesome if the Doctor would let us help him," Nita agrees.

"And what's more, I'm out of Nitro," Ace continues. "But I've got tons more back in my quarters."

"Well, let's go back and get some," Mel suggests.

"No, thank you," objects Glitz. "We'll steer clear of the home made stuff, I think. There's six hundred kilos

of commercial back on board the Nosferatu. I'll go and fetch some of that."

"Nosferatu?" asks Ace.

"You three stay here."

"Oh!" Ace cries indignantly.

"Just for once, bog, do as I say, and stay here. Don't go wandering off."

"What did you call her?" Nita asked Glitz, horrified. "Bog?"

"Why do we always get left out?" Mel complains.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." Glitz leaves.

"He is such a Barney," says Nita.

Ace sighs. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with I."

"Ice," Mel guesses.

"Your go," says Ace.

"This is so bogus," Nita complains.

Left alone in the restaurant, the little girl goes underneath a table to play with her teddy bear. The zombie mercenaries burst in and begin herding the customers out. They don't spot the little girl.

The dragon leaves the Ice Garden.

"Oh, you want to be leaving," says the Doctor.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Bazin and McLuhan approach an ice junction.

"Got it," says Bazin, looking at the tracking device.

"Direction?" asks McLuhan.

"Straight ahead. No, it's to the right."

"Distance?"

"Five metres."

They take cover.

"Four," says Bazin.

The dragon comes out.

"Three."

The dragon uses its lasers to cover the Doctor's escape.

"Where is it?" asks McLuhan.

"Heading away."

"Come on."

She leads him after the dragon.

In the restricted zone, Kane gets into his cabinet.

"Current ambient temperature minus ten Celsius. Target temperature minus a hundred and ninety three Celsius," says the computer.

At the Singing Trees, the girls are still playing I Spy.

"I spy with my little eye something beginning with M," says Ace.

The Doctor enters.

"Doctor!" cries Nita.

"That doesn't begin with M," objects Ace.

"Where's Glitz?" asks the Doctor.

"Professor!" cries Ace.

"He's gone back to his spacecraft," Mel replies.

"We've got to hurry," the Doctor urges. "We might be able to stop Kane and save the creature."

McLuhan and Bazin are on a catwalk on the lower levels.

"We're too close to the upper levels," says McLuhan.

"It's here," says Bazin.

"Where?"

"I don't know. It's everywhere. It's coming towards us."

"There's nothing there."

"It's still approaching. It's all around us!"

"Where?"

"It's down there!"

It's the little girl hiding under the steps.

"Stop! Hold your fire!" cries McLuhan. She calls down to the little girl: "All right, come out."

"It's a girl," says Bazin, stating the obvious. "How come the tracker's picking her up?"

The dragon approaches from behind and attacks. Bazin is wounded.

"Come on!" cries McLuhan.

McLuhan helps Bazin away while the little girl smiles at the dragon.

The Doctor and the girls are in the ice passage, where they join the catwalks.

"Back to the Tardis," says the Doctor.

"But what about the creature?" asks Nita. "We've got to save it."

"The creature will always be under threat from Kane, unless we can convince him that his star charts are hopelessly wrong," the Doctor replies. "Then we might be able to put an end to all this."

"This isn't another wind up, is it?" asks Ace. "I mean, I really am going to see your spacecraft, aren't I?"

The dragon carries the little girl into the shopping mall and puts her down.

"Bye!" Stellar waves to the creature as it walks away.

In the lower docking bay, panicking people run screaming into the Nosferatu while little Stellar finds the empty Refrigeration room and sits on a chair with her teddy. Glitz arrives as the bay doors close.

"Here!" cries Glitz in despair.

"Stand clear of the doors, please," says the computer.

"What's going on?"

"Undocking sequence in progress."

"Open up!" Glitz bangs on the doors with his fists.

"Locking arms disengaged."

"You can't go without me!"

"Spacecraft ready to clear Iceworld. Safe journey and good fortune, Nosferatu."

"You can't leave me, not after all these years. Come back!"

The Doctor and the girls reach the shopping mall.

"Where is everyone?" the Doctor asks. "Must be half day closing. I don't think we've got much time."

"What are we doing here?" asks Ace. "I thought we were going to see your spacecraft?"

"This is our spacecraft," says Nita, pointing to the TARDIS.

"I'm not stupid."

"Just come on," says Mel, dragging her over to the TARDIS.

The Doctor unlocks the door of the Tardis.

"Squeeze up, then," says Ace.

Mel, Nita and Ace enter the TARDIS.

"Hang about." Ace looks around, bewildered.

The Doctor gets the star chart up on the scanner.

"That's it, Proamon."

"Here, how'd you do that, then?" Ace is still confused.

"Well, it's bigger on the inside than the outside." Mel states the obvious.

"There is no planet Proamon." The Doctor is still absorbed in the star chart.

"It's transcendentally dimensional," Nita explains.

"Don't come all clever dick with me," says Ace. "What's going on?"

"It's difficult to explain," says Mel.

"Quiet!" the Doctor snaps. "There are things to be done."

The Doctor walks out then back in again for his hat and umbrella, bumping into Mel.

"Oh, Doctor!" Mel objects.

"Come on," the Ductor urges.

Bazin and McLuhan are still in the ice passage.

"Leave me," Bazin urges. "I'll hide. Come back for me."

"Come on," McLuhan ignores him. "Just down here, come on. You can do it."

Bazin limps down the passage, leaning on McLuhan's shoulder.

"That's it."

"Here, this is a shortcut to my quarters," says Ace.

"Later, Ace. We're in a hurry," objects the Doctor.

"No, it's all right. You go on ahead. It's just I don't feel properly dressed without a couple of cans of Nitro. I'll catch you up." She runs off down a side passage.

"Come on, girls. We're wasting valuable time," says the Doctor.

"If we miss you, we'll meet you in your quarters!" Nita calls after Ace.

Glitz enters the shopping mall. "Sprog? Doctor? Mel? Nita?"

"Ah, you there," says the rich woman. "Have you seen a small child called Stellar anywhere? I appear to have mislaid her." Glitz stares at her blankly. "Evidently not. Well, if you do find her, would you be so good as to let me know?"

In the ice passage, the dragon approaches McLuhan and Bazin.

"Fire!" cries McLuhan.

The dragon falls.

Ace is about to get some more cans of Nitro when she realises Kane is standing behind her.

"Right, just the head, and its finished," says McLuhan.

She starts using a laser cutter.

"Can't we just leave the head?" asks Bazin.

"Mister Kane wants the head, and I never leave a job half done," McLuhan replies.

They lift the head off the corpse and put it down. It opens and the crystal comes out.

The dragon's treasure!" Bazin gasps.

Energy bolts zap them both.

Glitz arrives at Ace's room. "Ace? Ace?" he calls, looking around.

In the ice passage, the Doctor, Nita and Mel arrive at the scene of carnage.

"The creature, it's dead! They've killed it," cries Nita.

"Yes, and it had a final surprise for anyone who wanted to try and interfere with it. A huge energy surge when its head was disconnected," says the Doctor.

"What shall we do with it now?" asks Mel.

"We'll finish its job for it, and put an end to all this death and destruction."

The Doctor pulls out the crystal and Mel takes it in her hands.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The Doctor and the girls enter Ace's room, where they find Glitz looking around.

"Ace?" calls Mel.

"Hey, you nicked it," accuses Glitz, pointing to the crystal.

"Where's Ace?" asks Nita.

"I don't know," replies Glitz.

"This is not good enough," says the Doctor, looking worried.

"Well, she wasn't with me," Glitz defends.

"Come on, we've got to find her," urges Mel, from the doorway.

"You lost her," says Glitz, reluctantly.

In the control room, Kane has Ace in a painful arm lock. He speaks into the intercom: "Doctor? Glitz? I know you can hear me. I'd like to propose a transaction. My very final transaction before I leave Svartos. The Dragonfire for the girl. Bring me the Dragonfire and you can have the girl. Special closing down sale, you might call it. But hurry, while stocks last."

The Doctor, Glitz and the girls are listening from the refrigeration room.

"I think he means it, Doctor," says Glitz.

"No doubt," agrees the Doctor.

"But we can't give him the treasure," objects Nita.

"We've no choice," says the Doctor. "The creature's already dead. Ace is still alive."

In the restricted zone, Stellar puts her teddy in Kane's cabinet, and covers his legs with a handkerchief.

"Current ambient temperature minus ten Celsius. Target temperature minus a hundred and ninety three Celsius," says the computer.

"Goodnight, teddy," says Stellar.

The Doctor, Glitz, Nita and Mel enter the control room.

"At last, after three thousand years," says Kane. "Bring it here."

"Three thousand years, eh?" asks the Doctor. "Long enough for an entire civilisation to have come and gone."

"Are you some kind of idiot?" asks Kane.

"You know, for someone who's had the patience to wait around for three thousand years, you seem to be in rather a hurry suddenly," says the Doctor.

"What's all this three thousand years?" asks Glitz.

"Three thousand years since you were exiled here from Proamon, along with the creature," continues the Doctor.

"Who are you?" asks Kane.

"Just a traveler," the Doctor replies.

"What do you know about Proamon?" Kane asks.

"We all know," Nita replies. "The creature showed us on the hologram."

"Oh, the archives," realizes Kane. "I should have destroyed them."

"No, no, no, you should keep them for souvenir value, along with the Ice Garden," the Doctor disagrees.

"Why was the creature doing time as well?" asks Glitz.

"The biomechanoid was my jailor," Kane explains. "Look around you. The controls laying dead, waiting for an energy source. The Dragonfire is that energy source."

"And without it you are powerless," says the Doctor.

"They thought they could imprison me on this wretched planet by implanting the power source inside the creature. They shall learn of their folly," says Kane, vengefully.

"And the living creature was created to keep you prisoner," says the Doctor.

"There were times when I ached for death. I considered journeying round from the cold dark side of Svartos to the sun blistered surface on the other side, where I would quickly die. Now, with the Dragonfire, I have the power to return to Proamon and exact my revenge," says Kane. He turns to Mel. "You, girl. Bring me the Dragonfire."

"No. I'm not going to lift a finger to help you," says Mel.

"Melanie?" questions Ace. She turns to Kane desperately. "Don't listen to her. She doesn't mean it." She turns back to Mel. "Doughnut, give him the treasure. I'm sixteen, I'm too young to be freeze dried."

"Come on, Mel," urges Glitz. "This is no time to be fastidious."

"Doctor?" asks Mel.

"Look, let me explain," says the Doctor.

Kane lets go of Ace's arms to reveal he is not wearing gloves. He holds his hands by her face. "You're wasting my time. The Dragonfire is mine now. You can either give it to me alive or I shall take it from your dead bodies."

"The logic is inescapable," admits the Doctor.

"Place it in the circuit," instructs Kane.

Mel puts the crystal on top of the console. The energy plays over it as Ace rushes to her companions and Kane works the controls. Wall panels come to life as the energy grows and a section comes down from the ceiling above the crystal.

"Doctor, what's happening?" asks Nita.

"It sounds like a starflight drive," replies the Doctor.

"Starflight drive?" asks Glitz. "It can't be."

Iceworld takes off from Svartos.

"This is a spacecraft," Glitz realizes. "The whole colony's a spacecraft!"

"My hour of vengeance."

"Vengeance on whom, Kane?" asks the Doctor. "You're too late."

"All your mercenaries are dead," says Nita.

"I can soon find more."

"But where will you find another home planet?"

"You're talking in riddles, Doctor. Proamon is my home planet."

"Was your home planet," the Doctor corrected him. "Take a look at your navigational equipment. It's fully operative now."

"There must be something wrong."

"Sadly not. Your planet, your people, your entire race were destroyed one thousand years after you were exiled."

"No. No, it's not possible."

"Look at the sun of Proamon. When you left, it was a cold red giant surrounded by freezing planets."

"There's nothing there but a neutron star."

"Your sun turned supernova two thousand years ago, and all its planets were engulfed in the explosion. Your people were annihilated, your planet obliterated. You're too late, Kane, for your revenge. You have no home. Time has flowed by."

"No. No! It shall not be!"

Kane opens a shutter to the outside.

"Danger, unfiltered sunlight," says the computer.

"What's he doing?" asks Glitz. "It's scorching."

Kane walks up to the porthole and promptly melts, screaming.

Later…

"Good afternoon, shoppers," comes Glitz's voice over the loudspeaker. "This is the new management speaking, Captain Glitz. It's time for a few changes."

The Doctor, Mel and Nita have returned to the TARDIS.

"Well, I suppose it's time," says Mel, mysteriously. Nita looks at her in confusion.

"Time? Funny old business, time. It delights in frustrating your plans. All Kane's perfidious aims thwarted by a quirk of time."

"No, I meant I suppose it's time I should be going."

"Oh," the Doctor realizes what she means.

"Time that I left."

"Yes, well, you could be right," the Doctor says, nonchalantly, trying to hide his disappointment. "Time for you to go."

"The Doctor becomes very interested in the console.

"Before I go, I…"

"Well, it is time," the Doctor cuts her off.

"Doctor."

"You must go."

"Before I go I'd like to say…"

"There's no point, Mel," the Doctor interrupts again. "No point hanging around wasting time"

"No, I'm not going until I've said my piece. I just want to say that…"

"There's no time, Mel."

"Oh, all right, you win," Mel gives up.

"I do. I usually do."

"I'm going now."

"That's right, yes, you're going. Been gone for ages. Already gone, still here, just arrived, haven't even met you yet. It all depends on who you are and how you look at it. Strange business, time."

"Goodbye, Doctor."

"I'm sorry, Mel. Think about me when you're living your life one day after another, all in a neat pattern. Think about the homeless traveller and his old police box, with his days like crazy paving."

"Who said anything about home? I've got much more crazy things to do yet."

They hug. Mel turns to Nita. "Bye, Nita, look after him for me."

"I will," says Nita, hugging her.

Glitz enters with Ace.

"Well, we've officially renamed my new spacecraft the Nosferatu Two, just cracked a bottle of ye old carbonated fruit alcohol over the bows and next stop sunny Perivale, eh, sprog?"

"Suppose so."

"Have you got room for another one?" asks Mel.

"Are you Perivale bound as well?" asks Glitz.

"Well, I was thinking of going a bit further."

"How much further?"

"How much further are you going?"

"Hang on half a millisecond."

"Excellent," says the Doctor. "Yes, Mel can keep you out of trouble, Glitz."

"And that means no more dodgy deals," says Mel.

"Thanks a billion, Doctor," Glitz grumbles.

"Glitz," the Doctor warns.

"Ace doesn't have anywhere to go," Nita hints.

"Nonsense," the Doctor argues. "An idyllic place, Perivale. It's got lush green fields and a village blacksmith, and…"

"Doctor, she comes from the twentieth century," Mel reminds him.

"Oh."

"Come on, Mel. Extract your digit," says Glitz, impatiently.

"I'll send you a postcard."

"But I don't have an address," says the Doctor.

"Oh, I'll put it in a bottle and throw it into space. It'll reach you, in time."

Glitz and Mel leave. Ace started to follow them.

"Ace, where do you think you're going?" the Doctor stops her.

"Perivale."

"Ah yes, but by which route? The direct route with Glitz, or the scenic route? Well? Do you fancy a quick trip round the twelve galaxies and then back to Perivale in time for tea?"

"Ace!"

Nita grinned at her in delight.

"But there are three rules. One, I'm in charge."

"Whatever you say, Professor."

"Two, I'm not the Professor, I'm the Doctor."

"Whatever you want."

"And the third. Well, I'll think up the third by the time we get back to Perivale."

Outside, little Stellar reaches for the Tardis door handle.

"There you are!" cries her mother, running up to her. "I've been looking all over for you. Now come on."

Her mother leaves, and the Tardis dematerialises.


End file.
